Posts Tagged ‘Natrajar’

Can we afford to be Lax in our followup of bringing back our cultural treasures ? It is a question which we posed to our readers some months back in this post….

Sadly the trend seems to be continue in current ” progress” on the Kapoor story. We find a detailed account with varying dates , numbers given in the Idol wing’s website with the foot note reading as under:
”
Present Stage of the Case :

There were two temple burglaries in Sripuranthan Village and Suthamally Village during 2006 and 2008 which 28 antique idols of Hindu Deities of immeasurable value were stolen and subsequently smuggled out of India and illegally exported to USA”

“It was during interrogation of those persons, it transpired that 18 Antique Metallic idols were stolen from Sri Varadaraja Perumal Temple at Suthamalli village by the three of them”…..” theft of eight idols in an another Sivan Temple at Sri Puranthan Village in Ariyalur District”

“…….18 Antique metallic idols from Sri Varadaraja Perumal Temple at Suthamalli village. A Non Bailable Warrant was issued to the petitioner and for recovery of stolen idols. Blue notices were sent for extradition of the petitioner to CBI, Interpol, New Delhi. It was further found that the same gang was also involved in the theft of eight Antique metallic idols stolen from Sri Pragdeeswarar Temple at Sri Purandan village in Ariyalur District. They were also exported to the U.S.”

“On 13.04.2008, in a famous temple viz., M/s.Arulmigu Sundareswarar and Varadharaja Perumal Thirukovil, Suthamalli Village, Udayarpalayam Taluk, Ariyalur District, as many as 18 idols, made of panchalohas were stolen away.”

While the most glaring anomaly is in the number of bronzes stolen there seems no consenus on the actual year they were stolen and illegally exported out of India. To make matters worse the Idol wing’s most important tool - ie the release of the photographs in such poor quality and most irresponsible manner in which they affixed erroneous names to the exhibits : Real howlers like Deepalakshmi ( lady with the lamp!!) for an Amman bronze, Sampanthar for Manikkavasagar and Krishnan for Sambandar. The second set of photos have equally ridiculous labeling : Deepalakshmi for Astradevar, Murugan for Chandikeshwara.

The Pdf published in the same site thankfully makes a few corrections but is still wrong in many. However it is important to note that the Chandikeshwara shown in the website ( titled Murugan) is absent in the pdf and now has a proper subramanya. So let us count.

8 listed under Suthamalli and 8 listed ( count Nataraja + uma as 2) under Sripuranthan. The photo of Chandikeshwara seems to match the set from Suthamalli. So overall we have images only for 17 bronzes.

We have already published information on the pdf file and the two images marked in Green have been identified with bronzes currently exhibited in two major museums. This information has already been passed on to the authorities and hopefully they will act on them. It is important to mention that they seem to have acquired them as early as in 2006.

We do not have a visual match for it from any of the published bronzes from the Idol wing ( as obviously they wrongly labelled dancing Sambandar as narthana Krishnar and then Manikkavasagar as Sampanthar !!).

We understand the the IFP has in its archives atleast some (more) of the photos from both the temples and it is sad to see that a complete itinerary of the assets have not been tallied and presented to the courts yet.

It is pertinent that the Idol wing and other authorities show more interest in solving this case in entirety and not just do lip service Galleries and Museums who have bought these stolen items have to shown proof to make them return these artifacts.

for example, below are some bronzes which are yet to be identified by us but published in the catalogues of Art of the Past.

Dancing Krishna / Navaneetha Krishna - Catalogue September 2008

The styling of this Krishna is contemporary the Sambanthar from Australia.

It is important to notice that the base has been removed from this bronze. We have already seen that the bronzes from Suthamalli have inscribed bases reading ” Suthavalli” being found in both the Natarja and Uma pedestals. Were all the bronzes similarly inscribed and is it the reason why they had their bases removed? If so is this bronze part of the stolen yet unlisted one from Suthamalli ? Further we have information that the IFP has one bronze listed as Ganapthi under their roll number 02235. Will the authorities make the effort to check this?

Fantastic chola Nataraja and not matching any of the bronzes published by the Idol wing. It is pertinent to point out that the IFP has two bronze Nataraja’s listed in their archives under roll number 11207 from Sripuranthan. Was there a second Nataraja stolen from the same temple?

We have also had a kind volunteer submit paper cuttings of Art of Past advertisements in Art of Asia volumes and they have been invaluable in ascertaining provenance for ( yet unreported) findings. However, there are a few more interesting bronzes from those which we are putting in public domain for people to help report.

Somaskanda- Chola

This is different from the published Somaskanda from suthamalli - photo from the Idol wing which is still to be traced.

Jaina MahaYaksha - Chola

Very rare to see a Jaina bronze but sculpted in classic Chola style.

Parvathi - late Chola ?

We hope the above will help unravel more and spur the authorities to do a more through job

Today we are going to see a very special pillar from the tanjore big temple. Who is this man depicted? Do you notice anything unusual ? Well the topic of this post does give it away !!

Its special because it portrays a very special person, who was so great a devote that the most sacred of towns is named after him - yes, we are talking of Puli Kaal Muni in tamil - puli ( tiger), Kaal ( legs), Muni ( saint) or Vyagrapadhar in sanskrit.

He was one of the earliest devotees of Lord Shiva of Thillai ( Chidambaram) which was called from time immemorial as Puliyur or Perumpatrup puliyur ( perum - great, patru - devotion - puli - tiger, ur - city or town)

The legend goes that the great saint, would go early into the forest to collect the choicest of flowers to offer the Lord of Dance. But however early he went, the bees and ants would still get to the blossoms, so he went even earlier - even before the sun rose to find the flowers before the insects. This gave him problems as the dew drops wouldn’t have evaporated yet and he found the branches slippery.

So great was his devotion and his intent to get the best for his Lord, that he prayed to the Lord to endow him tiger paws, so that he could climb the trees effortless - and the Lord obliged. With great delight, he went on to collect the flowers before the first rays of dawn, beating the insects to the race to find the most beautiful and aromatic flowers, that so delighted his Lord. There are many references to him in literature ( pl see tamil portion of this post to read the references)

Now see him beautifully sculpted in the pillars of the big temple, down to the last detail imbibed into the pillar.